Private schools 'acting as parents to middle-class children'

Private schools are being required to act as “moral arbiters” for children
from middle-class homes as parents work increasingly long hours to cover the
cost of fees, a leading headmaster warned yesterday.

Children are staying longer at school as parents work hard to pay fees during the economic downturn, according to the Society of Heads of Independent Schools.Photo: PA

Teachers are effectively acting as surrogate parents for thousands of pupils who often eat breakfast at school and remain in extra-curricular activities until the early evening, said Andy Waters, chairman of the Society of Heads of Independent Schools.

He said “more and more responsibility” was falling on schools during the economic downturn because of the sheer rise in parental workloads.

The comments were made amid concerns over the rising cost of private education in Britain.

In 2010/11, the number of pupils in independent schools dropped for the third year in a row as fee rises outstripped increases in earnings. Data showed the average parent was being forced to pay £13,179 in annual fees – an increase of 4.6 per cent in just 12 months.

But in a speech to the society’s annual conference in Croydon, Mr Waters insisted schools were attempting to keep fee rises as low as possible – often freezing costs altogether – to ease the burden on parents.

He also criticised repeated claims from the Coalition over the last 12 months that private schools have a moral duty to sponsor state schools through the Government’s academies programme.

Currently, more than a dozen leading fee-paying schools, including Wellington, Dulwich and Sevenoaks, help run academies.

But Mr Waters, head of the Kingsley School in Bideford, Devon, which charges up to £22,200 for boarders and £11,640 for day pupils, said his parents were “already paying twice for their child’s education through taxation and fees [and] face paying a third time if any of my small surplus is directed away from maintaining and improving my own educational provision” towards assisting an academy.

He said that – in the current financial climate – “more and more responsibility falls on schools to be the moral arbiters for children’s upbringing”.

“Our often beleaguered parents need us to provide wrap-around care, breakfasts and evening meals, homework clubs and extra-curricular activities so that they can work the hours needed to earn the wherewithal to pay school fees,” he said.

“It may be easy for us to criticise parenting that can seem lacklustre at times, but if our role is not to support the children from such families, then what is it?”

The comments were made after figures showed an increase in the number of young children being enrolled in boarding schools as a result of the pressure on family life.

It emerged last year that almost 14,000 pupils aged seven to 13 were boarding at private preparatory schools in Britain – an increase of more than five per cent in just 12 months.

In further comments, Mr Waters attacked Coalition reforms to league tables, including the introduction of the so-called English Baccalaureate. This rewards pupils who gain C grades in five academic disciplines – English, maths, science, languages and history or geography.

But he branded the move “curriculum-restraining”, saying it risked having a major impact on pupils’ access to the arts and sport, which are not covered by the new measure.

“We don’t need the curriculum-restraining EBacc as a measure for our schools; we need enrichment, diversity and creativity celebrated, and if we cannot put a number to it, so what?” he said. “In curriculum terms if nothing else, ‘You cannot lift the poor by destroying the rich’.”